This thread is for posts about 2025-published works, which people have read and recommend to other Filers.
There will be no tallying of recommendations done in this thread; its purpose is to provide a source of recommendations for people who want to find something to read which will be eligible for the Hugos or other awards (Nebula, Locus, Asimov’s, etc.) next year.
If you’re recommending for an award other than / in addition to the Hugo Awards which has different categories than the Hugos (such as Locus Awards’ First Novel), then be sure to specify the award and category.
You don’t have to stop recommending works in Pixel Scrolls, please don’t! But it would be nice if you also post here, to capture the information for other readers.
The Suggested Format for posts is:
- Title, Author, Published by / Published in (Anthology, Collection, Website, or Magazine + Issue)
- Hugo or other Award Category: (Novel, Novella, Novelette, Short Story, Related Work, Series, Graphic Story of Comic, Lodestar, Astounding, etc)
- link (if available to read/view online)
- optional “Brief, spoiler-free description of story premise:”
- “What I liked / didn’t like about it:”
- (Please rot-13 any spoilers.)
There is a permalink to this thread in the blog header.
[Based on a post by JJ.]
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Trials of Empire by Richard Swan, Orbit, Novel.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0C73T44BV
A necromantic justice of the peace must venture outside the empire to find the knowledge and allies necessary to save it from enemies internal, external and infernal.
Great prose telling the story of a flawed character trying to save a dying civilization from its own history. The world building and characterization are wonderful.
SF² Concatenation has posted its annual team’s unofficial views as to the best SF books and best SF films of 2024.
http://www.concatenation.org/stuff/best-science-fiction-of-the-year.html
(Scroll down for previous years which have seen a number of their previous choices go on to be short-listed and even win major SF awards.)
This is a thread for works published in 2025.
We have an existing thread for works published in 2024 — 2024 Recommended SF/F List”
Awww that’s my cat!
Never Eaten Vegetables by H.H. Pak (Novelette)
https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/pak_01_25
It’s a “colony ship has a problem with the frozen embryos” story that does a wonderful job with the ship AI’s character, and with the struggles of the survivors years down the line. Tremendous novelette
Rec Stalk!
Novelette
Kaiju Agonistes, Scott Lynch, Uncanny Magazine 62
Not a secret history but with a lot of the same genes, a different where and why of Godzilla’s brethren.
Short story
Six People to Revise You, J.R. Dawson, Uncanny Magazine 62
A person collects testimonials for their transformation, including “Someone who does not consider themself a loved one.”
Novelette
+1 for “Never Eaten Vegetables” noted by Jay above.
The Temporary Murder of Thomas Monroe, Tia Tashiro, Clarkesworld 220
A twisty story of a wealthy young man resuscitated after his murder, and of his killer.
Novella
The Orb of Cairado, Katherine Addison
A disgraced scholar gets an unexpected chance to revisit the disappeared artifact that led to his downfall. That part is wrapped up rather quickly, and complications ensue. A satisfying scholarly mystery.
This story begins at the same time as The Goblin Emperor, though it’s set elsewhere and Maia is mentioned in passing only a couple of times.
Novel and Series
The Tomb of Dragons, Katherine Addison, concluding The Chronicles of Osreth or whatever we call it with The Goblin Emperor included.
Celehar continues his work in the city of Amalo – a new task from the Archprelate involving a great deal of paperwork, an investigation in a haunted mine, and several political cases. Quietly satisfying and healing.
Also, this one does have Emperor Edrehasivar VII, on-page and speaking in a minor but enjoyable role. Leaves room for more – short works, perhaps? – and I’ll read them happily.
DRAMATIC PRESENTATION SHORT FORM
Severance has kicked this year off with a bang with its second season. This early on, it seems safe to say that its seventh episode, “Chikhai Bardo,”—an immaculately-filmed, heartbreaking chapter that finally delves into the backstory of Mark’s wife Gemma—should and will be a top contender throughout the rest of the year. Though this fan prefers personally to put one-per-show on his ballot, episode four “Woe’s Hollow” also deserves a shoutout.
Novel
A Conventional Boy by Charles Stross is a shorter Laundry Files novel that overlaps the time frame of The Rhesus Chart.
Derek got swept up mistakenly for DMing a D&D game during the Satanic Panic of the 80s. Bumbled bureaucracy has left him in Laundry custody for over 30 years when he should have been released right away. Times change.
DRAMATIC PRESENTATION SHORT FORM
One more for Severance: “Cold Harbor,” the season finale.
Novelette: The Hanging Tower of Babel by by Wang Zhenzhen, translated by Carmen Yiling Yan in Clarkesworld (https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/wang_02_25/)
Society likes to hype up big projects, whether it be wars or major pieces of infrastructure or major events. What happens when they get discontinued? Often some sort of necessary but politically-unfavorable dismantling has to happen. Or, like several former Olympic sports stadiums notoriously, they end up an ever-decaying eyesore.
Wang Zhenzhen imagines a future where it looks like like on space might work out but then, after realizing that there are too many medical issues, it ends up not. Vast infrastructure was built, impoverishing many people toward a future that never came to be. Rather than simply dwelling on the misplaced optimism of the prior generation, Zhenzhen wants the reader to think about what it means to finally dig the grave and bury a golden era. The author compares and contrasts this dismantling with the decaying mind of the protagonist, a former spacefaring hero turned to a forgotten dementia patient.
At first glance, this story can be thought of as a parable to many of the overly ambitious projects in China and elsewhere, such as housing projects where nobody ever ends up living. But the story is more than that: it’s a work about trying to find a way to let an era where a great many people poured their lives and their hearts out die with dignity. A respectful, highly thoughtful, and poignant work.
@Mike
This is a thread for works published in 2025.
ooops! My bad.
🙁
*A Drop of Corruption”, by Robert Jackson Bennett
Novel (2nd in a series)
In the canton of Yarrowdale, at the very edge of the Empire’s reach, an impossible crime has occurred. A Treasury officer has disappeared into thin air—abducted from his quarters while the door and windows remained locked from the inside, in a building whose entrances and exits are all under constant guard. To solve the case, the Empire calls on its most brilliant and mercurial investigator, the great Ana Dolabra. At her side, as always, is her bemused assistant Dinios Kol.
The second book in the series lives up to the promise of the first. A locked room murder mystery is just the jumping off point for the untangling of a vast web of deceit. And the book has some pithy things to say about the hazards of autocracy. This is a series worth following both for its great main characters and its fascinating biopunk setting.
The River Has Roots by Amal El-Mohtar
Novella
In the small town of Thistleford, on the edge of Faerie, dwells the mysterious Hawthorn family. There, they tend and harvest the enchanted willows and honour an ancient compact to sing to them in thanks for their magic. None more devotedly than the family’s latest daughters, Esther and Ysabel, who cherish each other as much as they cherish the ancient trees. But when Esther rejects a forceful suitor in favor of a lover from the land of Faerie, not only the sisters’ bond but also their lives will be at risk…
An exquisitely told fairy tale. Sometimes, that’s all I want. Quite often, actually, now that I think about it.
Dramatic Presentation, Short Form: “Cliff’s Edge” from Common Side Effects
Common Side Effects is an animated show about a mushroom that can cure most physical ailments in human beings. The show centers around the escapades of the discoverer of the mushroom/anti-pharma crusader and his friend who works at a pharmaceutical company.
For the first eight episodes, the story shows the flaws of the pharmaceutical industry, from environmental damage to the extreme profiteering as the CEO does all he can to eviscerate the mushroom out of existence in order to keep his company profitable. Then Episode 9 “Cliff’s Edge” rolls around and flips the tables on the audience.
As the title suggests, the mushroom has side effects common to most people who consume it. These side effects are disregarded earlier on in the series as the cure-all appears to be obviously too important to consider. But when, in “Cliff’s Edge,” the mushroom starts being doled out to any person who wants it and people start experiencing destructive side effects in great amounts the question of moral standing of the puritanical anti-pharma faction appears rocky. The people in the industry do have participants who test the drug, but those test subjects always give consent and the efficacy and safety tests are heavily regulated, versus the far riskier and far less ethical free-for-all the anti-pharma fanatics present. Additionally, when the industry players make the ultimate decision that the drug’s side effects are too corrosive to most participants’ brains to be ethically deployed, they have staff with the experience to investigate synthetic analogues to attempt to find a safe alternative.
It would be wrong to say that “Cliff’s Edge” is pro-pharma, as it and the subsequent episode show that industry playing it ultra-safe is abjectly silly (not to mention all of the morally abhorrent things they do in prior episodes). But this episode, and the series in general, does mature and thoughtful work to ask the question “What should pharmaceutical development look like?” I think this is a very important question to ask, one that, despite the immense humor of the show, is presented seriously. Maybe by having enough people in on the conversation of pharmaceutical development progress can be made to get it the necessary reforms. Maybe by getting people to talk about whether the mushroom in Common Side Effects should be used on people (and which people) that will get people to understand the real world challenges faced by the FDA, industry personnel, and doctors when they ask “is it worth the side effects?”
Also, the show is well-animated and well-written with some excellent voice acting.
Faithbreaker, by Hannah Kaner
Novel (3rd in a trilogy)
War has come. The fire god Hseth is leading an unstoppable army, consuming everything in her path. Middren’s only hope of survival is to unify allies and old foes against a common enemy.
A fittingly epic end to an epic trilogy. War, disaster, betrayals, alliances, politics, and, of course, the horror of a world where gods walk. I’m almost sad it’s come to a conclusion.
Novelette: “The Girl That My Mother is Leaving Me For” by Cameron Reed, Reactor
In a dystopian future, a young trans woman has been selected to gestate the clone of a CEO–a selection that lifts her out of poverty. When the pregnancy ends in a miscarriage, she’s about to be shunted aside in favor of a different prospective surrogate. But things may not go as the egotistical CEO plans.
I’m not usually a huge reader of dystopian fiction, but this was a heartfelt story with a surprising amount of hope despite its dark start.
DRAMATIC PRESENTATION LONG FORM
Sinners
written and directed by Ryan Coogler
Warner Bros. Pictures, Proximity Media
in theaters
Well, it’s a 1930’s-set Southern vampire monster flick. With musical numbers. And two Michael B. Jordans.
But, if you need a more verbose reason: Ryan Coogler’s post-Black Panther blank check film mixes a well-observed period piece with an invigorating spin on the classic vampire horror, as thrilling and terrifying as it is tragic. Coogler’s vampires are menacing, but also shaded a bit grayer than at first glance, born from the anger of being part of a subjugated identity (there’s a lot of parallels drawn here between African-American and Irish folk cultures) and seeking to avoid the shackles of mortal prejudices and systems through immortal community—even if that requires the forceful assimilation of others (a very Borg-y take on the vampire). Sinners asks if the bloodsucking beasts that attack its heroes are any worse than those with plain old human bigotries.
Big questions and big emotions aside, Sinners is a blockbuster of the highest caliber, simultaneously a fun old time and immensely moving. There’s a scene in here that may be one of the most stunning scenes I’ve ever seen in a theater, and I don’t think I’m being hyperbolic with this statement. To quote the current top Letterboxd review, “You’ll know it when you see it.”
Highly recommended, & a top contender.
Ooo, you beat me to it, N!
I just saw the film and came here to sing its praises. Yes, Sinners is a vampire movie, and it does have a violent and gory third act….but it’s so much more than that. It’s about music (the music throughout the film is excellent) and how music can free even people beaten down like those in 1932 Mississippi. It also has a post-credits scene (make sure you stay to see it) that actually means something, illuminating both the film’s themes and characters.
Just fantastic. Do not miss it.